Spyker, the tiny, Netherlands-based sports-car manufacturer that saved Saab from the GM guillotine, is preparing to sell its eponymous sports car operation to focus on its Swedish adoptee. The tooling, intellectual property rights, and plans for the handmade sports cars will be sold to a holding company company owned by Russian billionaire Vladimir Antonov.

Prior to Spyker’s acquisition of Saab last year, Antonov owned roughly one-third of the company. Concerns over potential ties between Antonov and organized crime—which he vigorously denied in a New York Times OpEd, and of which he was cleared by two independent audits—led GM to insist on his divestiture from Spyker as a condition of the Saab deal. He acquiesced, and the deal went through.

To further complicate matters, with Spyker selling both the operation that builds the sports cars, as well as the rights to the name Spyker, what remains of the entity that owns Saab likely will be renamed.

Antonov’s firm will pay €15 million—about $20.6 million at current exchange rates—up front, and then continue payments based on earnings from selling sports cars, up to an additional €17 million.

This is a good move overall. Saab’s parent desperately needs the money; it is carrying €92 million in debt, excluding further debts owed by Saab itself. Paying down this debt, along with other debt-for-stock swaps the company is making, will lower the interest rates the company pays and make it more attractive for investment and partnerships. Saab recently announced plans to source more engines from BMW, and a Bavarian engine is in Saab’s latest concept, the PhoeniX. We expect many more similar arrangements in the future with BMW and others. It’s possible that the next Mini platform, which likely will be shared with Peugeot-Citroën, will underpin a compact Saab.

Spyker, which sold only 36 cars in 2009 (2010 numbers have not been released), joins TVR in the ranks of boutique sports-car manufacturers owned by Russian billionaires.